Overview

In a crisis a great leader will give meaning to the events happening, turning them into an opportunity for growth. The key to this lies in the ability to build trust in their followers and this should be founded on empathy. Empathy is the key to building trust in the leader-follower relationship, and is indispensable for crisis leadership and recovery today.



Empathy, the Key to Building Trust in Crisis Leadership



Business Continuity is a key concern of modern business. When the world collapses leadership becomes the key skill and it is the human quality of empathy that allows leaders to guide people through times of severe change and emotional upheaval. Daniel Goleman, the writer of Primal Leadership, says "Leadership works through emotions. The more emotionally demanding the work, the more empathetic the leaders need to be."



“To understand others, one must first know oneself”



In Working with Emotional Intelligence, Daniel Goleman defines empathy as the "the awareness of others' feelings, needs, and concerns." However no matter how much empathy focuses on other people, it has to start with oneself. These days leaders in the global business world must continually work to raise their own emotional and cultural awareness, to develop in themselves the ability to relate to others. This is particularly important when cultural differences are at work. Leaders have to be aware of their own beliefs, their own basic values, their own assumptions, their own world-view and how they compare to others' cultural backgrounds and emotions.



The need for empathy and genuine trust



In light of the economic crisis and the demise of Enron, Lehman Bros and the Madhoff affair trust has become a much more precious commodity. Trust constitutes one of the key elements for leaders to allow them to communicate effectively and establish credibility. Empathy is vital tool in building that trust. The ability to be open about one's own doubts, fears and mistakes, and to confront unethical actions in a fast changing environment, are true leadership qualities today.



Empathetic leaders truly put people first



A leader's ability to display high levels of personal integrity and honesty with a strong concern for the needs of others engenders true empathy from which genuine trust will stem. It allows leaders to reassure, reinvigorate and inspire others, creating a strong group synergy and focus this on a shared goal.



The challenge for leaders today is to operate on a number of different emotional and cultural levels at any given time in a constantly changing world. These levels arise from a variety of sources, from their own cultural heritage, the cultural background of their employees and even from the culture of the organization that they work for. While culture is a shared system of values, meanings, ideas and beliefs it is shaped by each individual's perspective. As a result the same situation, product or service can have a different value for each individual in an organization. This cultural and emotional diversity can be heightened in times of adversity.



In a crisis situation, the cultural heritage of an individual can affect what that person focuses on, the things they perceive as key to the situation and the priorities they set. It can dictate the response to the crisis, particularly how leaders respond. This has a direct effect upon a leaders’ own emotions, their perception of the crisis and their followers. An empathetic leader, who can manage the variety of emotions that arise, both within themselves and others, to facilitate rather than interfere with the task of moving forward will open a way to recovery from the emotional distress caused by crisis events and as a result from the crisis itself.



Therefore empathy is an essential leadership competency that applies to the human dimension of any crisis scenario. The approaches which can be used vary widely, but it is empathy that distinguishes a good leader from a great leader in a crisis situation. Cultural and emotional issues play a significant role in a modern changing world and should, therefore, play an equal part in leadership training curricula.



Anyone embarking on training, mentoring, and coaching of leadership today needs to give a strong weighting to the use of empathy, particularly in crisis leadership.